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Jeff Marker

On the road today we stopped at a Pizza Hut for some quick dinner. It ended up being a terrible restaurant in what seemed to be a weird, depressing town. Haven’t gotten such blatant, rude “you ain’t from around here” looks in many years. The televisions were playing a crime doc show all about murder and sexual assault cases; meanwhile the only diners were two families with small children. And a young couple was sleeping in a corner booth. They both appeared to be battling meth withdrawal.

While the kid and I were waiting, we noticed they had a game room. Cool! We checked it out, partly because I would rather he not be exposed to the American nightmare in the dining area any longer.

It was like stepping into a time machine. The games were all made by Sega, Midway, or Atari! Most dated back to the late 90s or early 00s. But half didn’t work. It was more like a game graveyard than arcade. The pics are of poor quality, which is fitting. Behold the saddest arcade in the world.

Didn’t work

Turkey Shoot

California Speed – sorry for the awful exposure

Mortal Kombat is flatlining

Crazy Taxi!!

They had two of these cycle racing games. Both had functional sound but no image

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NASA‘s Juno spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral on August 5, 2011, and my family was there to see it! It was a memorable vacation. We explored the amazing Kennedy Space Center and fulfilled our collective dream of seeing a NASA launch. (I blogged about it back in 2012.) We thus have felt invested in the Juno mission for all the years it’s been in flight, even though not much has happened during most of the past five-ish years. But now things are getting exciting! Take a look at the beautiful video NASA cut together from the thousands of still images Juno has captured.

I think watching Jupiter’s largest moons in orbit is lovely. It’s also quite a technical accomplishment. Each still image is actually a composite of separate red, green, and blue images. Juno captured an image every 15 minutes over a 17-day period, for a total of 1,300 images. All that just to make this little animated sequence. NASA is making all 1,300 images available for anyone to download, too. Then in August we’re supposed to get more sophisticated images from Juno.

It’s silly, I know, but we feel like we’ve participated in this great adventure. Can’t wait to see what Juno sends next.

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I’ve been re/reading Stieg Larsson’s trilogy of Millennium novels and re-watching the Swedish film adaptations as part of research for an academic paper. I had read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor/Men Who Hate Women) but this is my first time reading the other two novels, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Luftslottet som sprängdes/The Air Castle That Was Blown Up). I’m a handful of chapters from finishing the third book and feel like sharing some random thoughts, just because.

These novels are great, but Larsson needed a ruthless editor and the time to pare down some elements. Sadly, Larsson passed away prior to publication of the novels. There may not have been the opportunity to do the usual editorial process. But there are entire subplots that do not progress the narrative. For instance, The Girl Who Played With Fire begins with Lisbeth Salander vacationing in Grenada. She has an affair with a local in his late teens. She encounters a couple from the U.S. in which the husband abuses the wife. She ventures out into a hurricane to rescue her young lover and ends up saving the wife and killing the husband. These events never come to bear in the remainder of the novel. And with only several chapters left in the final installment, it still hasn’t come into play and would be unnecessary if it did. Many passages and narrative strains along the way are redundant, too. It’s almost routine for the reader to be already aware of the perpetrator of a crime or a criminal’s identity, only for Larsson to give us a procedural account of one investigator or another trying to solve this crime. He shifts from one character’s perspective to another and repeats exposition we already know. The trilogy is brilliant in its creation of a vast diegesis populated by interesting characters. That sort of world-building is usually found in fantasy or science fiction narratives, not a realistic crime series with a social conscience. All of that could have been accomplished with at least 100 fewer pages in each novel.

Back when I first encountered The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I thought it was a great title. At this point, though, I greatly dislike the English-language titles of the first and third novels, neither of which is a direct translation of the original Swedish. Salander is the true protagonist of only the second novel. The first is primarily about Mikael Blomkvist’s investigation of the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, and the third is an ensemble. The narrative shifts among Blomkvist, Erika Berger, investigators Jan Bublanski and Sonja Modig, Monica Figuerola, a whole network of criminals, and Salander. The English titles position Salander as the character that drives the narrative, and she simply isn’t for the great majority of the narrative.

It’s also part of a trend of characterization that somewhat undermines the feminism Larsson infused into the novels. Salander is “the girl” rather than a woman. Every male character who encounters Salander is fascinated by her. They dwell on her appearance and attempt to solve the mystery of her character. There are copious, detailed descriptions of Salander’s body. It’s a fine line between representing Salander as the object of the male characters’ gaze in order to interrogate that gaze versus being guilty of indulging in the male gaze. Unfortunately, Larsson steps over that line in ways. His feminism ultimately seems naïve and facile, although undoubtedly well-intentioned and valuable in a mainstream crime series.

Speaking of Berger, an entire feature film could be adapted from her subplot. I’d watch it, and it could be pointedly socially relevant. I am quite certain what she endures is a mere dramatic exaggeration of what many women in leadership positions deal with, and I’d bet harassment of exactly this kind is more common than most think. Oh, and if such a film were made, it would be a crime NOT to cast Lena Endre, who played Berger in the Swedish film adaptations, in the lead. She is the perfect Erika Berger, and I now realize how much her character was reduced in the adaptation process. What a shame. Both Endre and Berger deserved more.

Finally, does anyone else think Donald Trump is a mixture of Martin Vanger and Hans-Erik Wennerström? 😉 Sorry to throw in a political comment. We’ve been mired in the presidential campaign for months now, and that comparison kept occurring to me.

Despite any criticism I might have, I’m still a big fan of Larsson’s Millennium novels. I’m quite certain this won’t be the last time I read them.

My family and I recently hiked up Anna Ruby Falls near Helen, Georgia. It’s a little half-mile hike through a landscape that captures some of what makes the northeast Georgia foothills and mountain region so beautiful. I managed to extend the time it took to make the hike because I was playing around with a camera I bought secondhand from a filmmaker friend, a Panasonic Lumix FZ1000. This was the first time I got to really play around with it in these conditions, so I’m afraid I slowed our pace considerably. Here are some of the better photos.

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I’m currently on holiday break and have set a goal of starting to exercise again. I did great for the first ten days (possibly the longest streak of my adult life, btw). With the exception of Christmas Day, I ran every day, did light weightlifting every other, and each time finished with physically deep, mentally grounding stretching every day. Then starting on the 29th I failed to get myself in gear. Didn’t exercise for five days. This morning I finally exercised again, largely because I was inspired by seeing my wife exercise last night.

This experience reminded me of a few things.

I hate exercising. I am doing this for my own health and for my family. My job is not at all physical but it is highly stressful, and I need healthier ways to alleviate that stress. I also want to experience as much of my son’s life as possible, so I’m doing my part to live longer. I am a happier person when I am healthier, which makes me a better husband and friend to my wife. Finally, I am now in a leadership position and my mood has an effect on scores of people. I need to improve myself internally in order to be more supportive externally. But there’s no pretending I enjoy any of this.

Getting back into shape is such a rollercoaster. I had to psych myself up for the first few days just to get started. However, I was motivated by a desire to shed stress that had built up over the past several months at work and by observing how crooked my grandmother’s and father’s spines are becoming when we visited family over Thanksgiving. I’d love to prevent that happening to my own back if it’s possible. By the sixth day, I felt quite good about myself. Felt really great when I got myself up out of bed on the 26th and exercised again. Then my motivation declined precipitously, shall we say. On the 30th, I convinced myself it was okay to take a day off. ‘I am on holiday break, after all!’ Then it was New Year’s Eve. ‘Come one, it’s New Year’s Eve!’ Then it was New Year’s Day. ‘Come one, it’s New Year’s Day!’ But then, yesterday was plain old January 2nd. We didn’t have any plans. It was a Saturday. No way to rationalize it, I just slacked off. The internal monologue became, ‘I suck.’ And I didn’t get up early this morning to exercise, which had been my routine at the beginning of the break. I slept in. I had half of a cup of coffee. The prospects for exercising today were slim. And I felt like shit about myself, because I was failing to reach my goal of developing an exercise routine over the break. No way to deny it, the progress I had made was slipping away. Then I thought about Alicia exercising the night before. She also bought me a pretty good supply of Kind bars, which I like to eat before exercising. She has helped facilitate this whole plan, and I was letting it fall apart. So I made myself do it. I set up the treadmill and laptop so I could watch Making A Murderer while I walked/ran, and I did it. I once again feel pretty good about myself mentally, and my body feels so much better, especially after the big stretch at the end of the workout. Speaking of…

The stretch is my favorite part of any workout, and that’s coming from a former high school football player who for a couple of years fell in love with weightlifting during the off-season. Lifting still feels pretty good, but these days the stretch is the best. I am comically inflexible by nature (seriously, I haven’t touched my toes since my twenties), and I carry stress in a handful of places, making my legs, lower back, and neck even stiffer than they are by default. I take my time to stretch and now throw in some yoga poses because I’ve found they stretch certain places that really need it – and because I’m trying to use stretching as a means of becoming more balanced and grounded mentally.

(Quick side notes: For the early part of my adult life I did physical labor, so I recognize that I’m writing about white-collar, First World Problems here. My early twenties self would be mocking me while reading this, and if certain of my friends are reading this, they are too. Don’t blame you, fellas.

Also, I am guilty of skepticism when it comes to the whole body-mind-spirituality-new-age realm of thinking. I know I aggravate my wife when I don’t buy into it. So she has got to be LOVING the fact that I’m using phrases like “balanced and grounded.”)

This morning’s stretch is actually what made me sit down to write this. I laid out the yoga mat on the floor (Mrs. Marker prefers that I not transfer sweat from my back to the living room rug, and I do not argue with that position) and did my little bit of weightlifting, then I commenced stretching. As I said, I use the stretch these days for both physical and mental ends. It’s a time to find a healthier frame of mind and get grounded for the rest of the day (there I go again). This morning, though, Alicia was bustling around the house doing a few chores at once, the dishwasher was running, the clothes dryer was running, my son was playing Minecraft on the television complete with background music, and the dog, as she always does, was under my feet on the mat eating and rolling around. In other words, if one were to try to create a meditative, introspective atmosphere, the house this morning was pretty much the polar opposite of what that would look like.

But in the midst of a tree pose (like I said, fellas, laugh it up), it occurred to me how perfect it all was. I was surrounded by my family. We were all safe, healthy, and together. It’s the beginning of a new year, and we had time to just be together. For a moment, I thought about what it would be like if I could no longer hear and sense my wife’s presence in the house. Or hear my son’s voice as he played. Or see that the dog was trying to take over the yoga mat.

That kind of solitude doesn’t sound peaceful or meditative at all. All of these things passed through my mind, and I felt enormously grateful for all that I have. And I suddenly realized I felt grounded. Huh, so that’s how it works.

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It wasn’t a particularly deep year for quality films. Some of my colleagues disagree, but some of the movies being touted as awards contenders (“Trumbo,” for example) didn’t live up to the hype for me. The top three films on my list stand far above all others, the next five are all outstanding, then there are several good films that wouldn’t be strong enough to make best-of lists in many other years. Still, the best things about year-end movie lists is they might encourage folks to seek out lesser known movies or debate those they have seen. Hopefully this list does both.

Image courtesy of epk.tv

Room

Seven years ago, a young woman (Brie Larson) was abducted and confined to a one-room shed by her captor. This room is the only world her five-year old son (Jacob Tremblay) knows – until mother and child attempt a perilous escape. Lenny Abrahamson, who for two years in a row has produced one of my favorite movies of the year (do yourself a favor and see Frank) focuses on the mother’s will to protect her child and the young boy’s discovery of the world outside the room, and leaves us with a deeper appreciation of the bonds between mother and child. Larson should walk away with the Best Actress Oscar, newcomer Tremblay should be nominated, and Abrahamson damned well better be nominated for helping the actors achieve these performances.

Image courtesy of Netflix via The Guardian

Beasts of No Nation

Cary Joji Fukunaga (“True Detective”) adapted Uzodinma Iweala’s novel about an African child soldier into a harrowing, empathetic, brutal, and unforgettable viewing experience. Idris Elba towers through the film in an outstanding supporting role, but new discovery Abraham Attah gives a mind-blowing performance in the lead role. This is also a significant moment in media history, since Beasts is Netflix’s first theatrically released motion picture. It did very poorly at the box office in terms of dollars, but this is the first feature film produced by a streaming service that has a real shot at winning Best Picture.

Ex Machina

This thought-provoking, sexy, stylish science fiction thriller is so stunning I watched it on an airplane yet was still enamored. Three brilliant actors (Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac) conduct a cinematic Turing test amongst themselves and with us. Vikander, as an AI so human-like and charming she seduces Gleeson’s character and us, continues to establish herself as one of the most charismatic actresses of her generation. The content is timely, yet the film is timeless, the sort of science fiction (not science fantasy) I wish we saw more often.

Canadian poster (why not?) courtesy of epk.tv

The Big Short

I would call this an essential movie, but people tend to resist must-see recommendations. I would tell you it provides the best explanation yet of the Wall Street collapse, but that description is far too academic and won’t get you to the theatre. And I don’t dare tell you it predicts impending economic dangers. Instead, I’ll just say it’s a hilarious, witty comedy featuring a world-class cast (Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Marisa Tomei, Rafe Spall). Incredibly, all of those descriptions are equally accurate. Director Adam McKay pulls a brilliant bait-and-switch, selling us with the comedy in order to give the best assessment yet of what led to the economic recession.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is less a biopic than a virtuoso enunciation of classic American themes (like The Social Network, this movie owes an enormous debt to Citizen Kane). Drawing on a typically polished Aaron Sorkin screenplay, Danny Boyle directs an exquisite quintet of Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, and Michael Stuhlbarg, who are occasionally joined by other outstanding players. I don’t even care if the film gets a lot of details wrong or unjustifiably glorifies Jobs. It is a joy to watch perfectly executed filmmaking.

Image courtesy of epk.tv

Spotlight

The next great journalism movie has arrived. Writer/director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor) and a stellar ensemble cast (Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Billy Crudup) dramatize the true story of the Boston Globe’s investigation into the child molestation scandal and subsequent cover-up that forever altered the stature of the Catholic church. It’s an inspiring reminder of the social role only the fourth estate can fill.

Image courtesy of epk.tv

Love & Mercy

You might not believe this, but John Cusack is outstanding in this Brian Wilson biopic (I kid, I kid). But his performance isn’t as strong as Paul Dano’s. The two actors play Wilson at different stages of life, and both capture the genius and torturous mental illness that defines the legendary composer and musician. Love & Mercy is an unconventional biopic and a fitting tribute. Elizabeth Banks, in a nomination-worthy supporting role, does what she always seems to do – quietly elevate the film with each scene in which she appears. The glaring weakness here is Paul Giamatti’s garish performance as the psychiatrist who possibly saved Wilson’s life yet definitely infantilized him for years. I believe the real Dr. Eugene Landy was this evil, I’m just tired of seeing Giamatti play this character. Everything else compensates, though.

Image courtesy of cinemavine.com

Sicario

An idealistic FBI agent (Emily Blunt) goes on a covert mission into Mexico with a shadowy task force as part of the “war on drugs.” But she discovers there is much more going on than she initially recognized. Director Denis Villeneuve uses the scenario to say some things about the narcotics trade and the government’s battle against it, but mostly he delivers a taut, fever pitch action movie that, along with Prisoners, places him in a whole new class of filmmakers. Blunt again proves she can do action, and Benicio del Toro is chilling and pitch perfect. I am professionally required to claim Mad Max: Fury Road is the best action movie of the year, but if you like your action grounded in reality, Sicario beats Max.

Image courtesy of Forbes

Inside/Out

This was inarguably Pixar’s best movie in years, but that’s no longer saying much for a studio that has churned out formulaic sequels since being bought by Disney. Honestly, I think this one is a bit over-rated, but I’m including it here mostly because of the superb animation. (I’ve never seen skin textures like those created for the emotion characters!) There is also much to be said about a family movie willing to tackle pre-teen emotions and let kids know they should accept their sadness, fear, and anger, and therefore cope with them in healthier ways.

Image courtesy of blastr.com

Mad Max: Fury Road

I’m including Fury Road for three reasons. One, people like lists with ten entries. Two, George Miller’s revival of the legendary Australian post-apocalyptic science fiction franchise elevates the car chase to a thing of beauty. Stunning cinematography captures impeccably executed, acrobatic battle sequences taking place on wheels. Miller’s film reminds us how much more thrilling and cinematic practically achieved stunts are. Three, I hope it angers men’s rights activists, a group for whom Fury Road sparked the most pathetic outrage of the year (and in 2015, that is really saying something). Max is not made weak because Furiosa is made strong. The moment when Max recognizes Furiosa is a better shot than he and hands her the rifle is already being cited as a minor landmark, and it’s just one of many ways the film inverts the gender power dynamics typical of the genre. Surprisingly, this balls-out action opus captures gender equality circa 2015 perfectly.

Others worth seeing:

The End of theTour, Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, The Assassin, Carol, Amy, Finder’s Keepers, Best of Enemies

I recently taught at Zhejiang Normal University (ZJNU) in Jinhua, China for three weeks and tried my best to keep a diary of my time there. My writing became more sporadic the longer I was there, but I did take loads of pictures. I’ll share everything worth sharing over the next few weeks. Below is the first entry.

Today was my first full day in Jinhua, and thanks to the professor with whom I will be teaching, I got to see some of the campus and surrounding community. The professor’s name is Tao, but like most Chinese people I have met, he has an English name, which is Chris. I first met him during a very brief visit to the university back in March, and it took about an hour for us both to realize we were going to be fast friends.

Chris earned his PhD from Beijing Film Academy, which any film studies academic can tell you is terribly impressive. It’s on par with an American engineer with a degree from MIT. I mean, the period of film history called the Chinese Fifth Generation, the defining period in all of Chinese cinema, is so named after the fifth class of graduates to come out of Beijing Film Academy, and it is notoriously difficult to get into. Yet he is totally unassuming and one of the most generous people I have met. Quite a person.

Chris took me for coffee and we discussed the lectures I would give. It was very helpful and made me feel much less nervous about teaching the next day. When he heard that no one from ZJNU had set me up with a meal card or shown me around, he seemed a little miffed. He called someone from the international office and made sure they’d set me up with a card tomorrow. They had already requested it, but the place isn’t open on Sundays. So he took me to the North Gate area and explained a few things.

Béimen, or the North Gate

North Gate (or Béimen in pinyin) is one of four gates that border the campus. (Bet you can guess what the others are called.) But when people use the phrase Béimen they are usually referring to the neighborhood surrounding the actual gate. Half of it, on one side of the gate, is on university property, but the rest of it is Jinhua property. Altogether, though, this area is the lifeblood of the non-academic ZJNU experience.

The Jinhua side of North Gate

If you swivel around the other way, you get the view on the left. The fruit vendors were out in force that day, and we tried litchi and yangmei. I liked them both, so Chris bought me some. They became my breakfast for the next few days.

North Gate is constantly busy, teeming with life, loud, and chaotic. I loved it. The energy there is amazing. And you can buy just about anything in these little shops. I’m not a fan of mysterious meat served on sticks, but if that’s your thing, you’d love it here, too.

Here is a view of the ZJNU side of the North Gate neighborhood.

A view of the campus side of North Gate

A view of North Gate from the second story of the row of shops.

Middle of North Gate looking northward

Another view of North Gate from the second story. Notice the big tree at the end of the row in the middle of the street. Everybody calls this “the big tree” (I didn’t learn that phrase in Mandarin, sorry.) If you want to meet up with someone, you usually say you’ll meet at the big tree. It didn’t strike me until I started writing this post that I didn’t get a good picture of the tree.

North Gate looking southward

One last view of North Gate. Note all of the scooters. Most of them are electric, and they are everywhere on the ZJNU campus. I took this photo in the middle of the day, which is why there aren’t many people. It gets very hot in the middle of the day, and campus usually clears out. It’s a shame, because on a busier day this whole street would be filled with students – and all of the female students would be shading themselves with parasols. Umbrellas/parasols are not just functional here, they are a very important fashion accessory. It always makes for a charming view.

After we had wandered around for a while, Chris took me to one of the campus canteens where faculty, staff, and students can use their university cards to pay for meals, and he bought me lunch since I didn’t have mine yet. Then he gave me his card to use until I got my own card. The following day, he gave me one of his old phones to use while I’m in China. Like I said, quite a person.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what yangmei, the fruit I mentioned, looks like, here is a photo. They are delicious. Both these and litchis are native to the region and fairly important to their agricultural industry and daily diet. I will always associate my time at ZJNU with the taste of these gorgeous little fruits.

yangmei

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A Note on Content

I teach film, research surveillance in cinema, write about movies, make movies, occasionally act, and occasionally play music. I'm currently the head of the Communication, Media & Journalism department at the University of North Georgia.